SILVEEY HAIRTAIL. 185 



appears identical with the lepturus of Artedi, and conse- 

 quently of Linnaeus." 



Cuvier and M. Valenciennes, in their description of T. 

 lepturus, state the situation of its lateral line to be but one- 

 third of the space above the line of the edge of the abdomen : 

 Mr. Hoy states that the side line went straight along the 

 middle : in other respects, Mr. Hoy's second fish agrees 

 nearly with T. lepturus, as described in the Histoire Natu- 

 relle des Potssons, already referred to. It would seem, 

 however, that it must have been comparatively a deeper fish : 

 the barring of the sides does not occur in T. lepturus ; and 

 the latter has never yet been recorded as arriving at the 

 gigantic size of Mr. Hoy's specimen, which could not have 

 been less than fourteen feet and a half in length : the largest 

 in the Paris Museum is stated to measure only three feet. 

 It is evident that more information on the subject is re- 

 quired : the result of it may be the establishment of Mr. 

 Hoy's second fish as a new species of Trichiurus, and of 

 his first fish, which is evidently distinct from the second, as 

 the type of a new genus, — if, as Dr. Fleming has suggested,* 

 it was not a mutilated example of the Dealfish of the Orca- 

 dians, Gymnetrus arcticus, the fish described next but one 

 in this Avork. 



Specimens of Trichiurus have been taken at New York, 

 Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, St. Bartholomew's, Cayenne, 

 Rio Janeiro, and Monte Video. Cuvier thinks it may cross 

 the Atlantic ; and adds, that specimens received from Sene- 

 gal in no way differed from those received from America. 



Two species at least, if not more, inhabit the Indian Sea ; 

 and all the species are truly marine. The differences, how- 

 ever, which characterise the various species, are as yet not 



* Loudon's JMagazine of Natural History, vol. iv. p. 219. 



